When Mark Zuckerberg invented Facebook it’s interesting to wonder if he ever thought that it would shape the social networking frenzy that we are now part of. It started a trend among those wanting to link with friends, send messages and share personal updates. Since then it has grown and developed. The application to establish ‘groups’ can be set up quickly by companies, brands or the public. This has made social media an essential element of modern day marketing.
A recent study has shown that 56% of online shoppers join groups or ‘follow’ retailers on social media sites. Facebook has come out on top as the best way to reach the online shopping community, so it’s surprising that 25% of the top 100 brands can’t be easily found on this site or don’t have a page at all. This is such a wasted opportunity. It’s free and simple to set up a group, and for the relatively small investment in resources needed to keep it updated with news, it’s a cost effective way to spread the word about your product to interested people.
Take our word for it! Marketing Zone has its own Facebook page, as does our client Polaroid Sunglasses. And high street favourites such as Marks and Spencer and New Look are all communicating with their customers via Facebook, as are designer brands Gucci and Tiffany. People who join your group have an active interest in your product – so talk to them and drive your retail success forward.
When you’re sending out mailings, research has shown that you need to take some time to decide who you are targeting. Any company can send out a standard sales letter to their entire database, but it’s unlikely to work.
Studies have shown that personalised content can dramatically boost customer loyalty, online conversions, and revenue. Maybe you’re put off because you tried it a few years ago and it didn’t pay off. But now, with budgets stretched, bosses and shareholders expecting to see a result for every penny spent, it might be time to give it another shot.
By segmenting your database and personalising your messages, it lets you deliver the right offer to the right customer at the right time via the right channel. Personalisation can increase sales, enhance online conversion rates and strengthen customer retention. Why not try it for your next campaign and judge for yourself.
Marketing Zone has strong relationships with young people and young businesses in the community. We’ve support the Prince’s Trust and local football teams, so when the University of Hertfordshire approached us, we were delighted to help them. It’s motivating to be involved with the local students, and encourage them to develop their skills and ideas. We’re looking forward to helping them get creative.
This term we are involved with the students at the De Havilland campus in Hatfield studying for the Electronic Marketing module as part of their Business and Marketing degree. The students will work on a website, developing an e-marketing campaign and Facebook fan base. Students will be joining Marketing Zone for a week in March to develop their project and gain work experience.
As part of our series on all the different types of image terms, we’ve posted about GIFs, JPEGs, EPS and PNGs. As images can be produced in different formats, so to can colours. When your marketing agency designs your artwork, software programs will give them the choice to work in either RGB or CMYK mode. RGB mode is mainly used on websites. CMYK mode is the correct colour format for full colour printing.
RGB stands for Red, Green and Blue, the primary colours of light. Scanners and digital cameras create images using combinations of the three RGB colours. When a scanned image or photo taken with a digital camera is saved, it will usually be in RGB format. RGB mode is used for displaying images in electronics, such as televisions and computers, and especially used on websites and in digital photography. RGB files can’t be used for printing on professional print presses, due to their structure.
But why is there a difference between the files? Professional printers produce your print items using a different set of colours to RGB. This is known as CMYK printing and uses the primary colours of pigment rather than light. CMYK is short for Cyan (blue), Magenta (red), Yellow and Black (K). The inks used in this process are translucent so can be overprinted and combined in a variety of different ways to produce a wide range of colours and a higher quality print that RGB.
There isn’t an area of the UK that hasn’t been affected in some shape or form by the recent snowy weather. No more so than in Buntingford where marketing agency Marketing Zone is based. Luckily we always plan our Christmas party for January!
This year it was especially good timing as now the weather seems to be improving, touch wood, we could all go out together last week and enjoy a delicious meal at Lussmanns Fish and Grill restaurant in Hertford. It was a great opportunity to celebrate the successes of the past year, and look to the exciting projects we are working on, and inspiring clients that we will be working with in 2010. We are looking forward to a successful year for all.
